“The best laid plans of mice and men…”
Have you been
waiting with baited breath to hear about my recent 2 week trip back to
Mafikeng, South Africa? I’m certainly
excited to share our experiences with you!
We had a great time!
Our team, of four
vet students from Purdue and myself, arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa
eager to spend the week interacting with and ministering to Animal Health
Technician students on rotation at the clinic at North-West University. We picked up our rental car (our Tetris expert
successfully fitting in all our luggage) and drove four hours through the
North-West Province to my future home of Mafikeng, arriving after only one
unplanned detour through the town center taxi depot.
We met up with Dr.
Emery, our host, at a local AWANA program and, after playing with the kids
during game time and listening to them recite their verses, we sat down to
discuss our schedule for the week. You
can imagine our surprise when we found out the university had recently decided
to change this term’s dates so all the students were going to be home for their
reading week (a study week between the end of classes and the exams) rather
than being on rotation in the clinic.
Although
discouraged by this change in plans, we were excited to still be able to spend
time at the outlying village of Lokakeng for an evening worship service on
Sunday. As we followed the pastor out
the dirt tracks to the meeting location we passed donkey carts, bottle shops
(liquor stores), and an enthusiastic game of football (soccer). The service is currently held in the open air
outside the home of believer so we set up the speakers, microphones, and
keyboard and jumped right in to worship.
As our praises to the Lord carried though the village, people gradually
wandered over and joined in with joyful singing and dancing.
After a time of
worship, Pastor Obakeng and Pastor KG (local Tswana pastors) both gave short
messages (in the local Setswana language) and then it was back to worship
again. This time, many of the local kids
joined in and quickly warmed up to our team, and we were soon energetically
dancing together. We knew no more than a
couple words of Setswana and they knew little English, but the music
transcended language. When it was finally
time to leave we could hardly get into our vehicle for all the kids clinging to
us for hugs.
During the week, we
spent time seeing patients at the small animal clinic, going out to the
university farm to observe goat castrations, practicing spay and neuter
surgeries, and helping with a cattle health day for rural farmers. We were also able to organize a vaccine
clinic in the village of Lonely Park and vaccinated over 50 local dogs for
rabies. These dogs were also dipped in a
product to kill and repel ticks to help protect them from Ehrlichia and Babesia
parasites. We all had to laugh when we
saw this tiny car pull up with 6 people and five large dogs inside. I can’t imagine how they all fit! It was like a real life circus clown car.
Perhaps our most
important ministry for the week was spending time with and pouring into Dr.
Emery and his family. We enjoyed
fellowshipping over dinners and braais (BBQ), playing many rousing rounds of
Euchre and other card games, and spending time with neighborhood kids.
As our week in
Mafikeng closed we all wished the time was longer and leaving was bittersweet.
We were reluctant to leave our new friends, but also looked forward to several
days of safari and sightseeing.
For myself, as I continue
in deputation (raising support) to return to Mafikeng for three-years, this trip
has me even more excited! I truly feel
this is where God has placed me and can’t wait to get started teaching in the
clinic and getting to know the students.
I’m also excited about what other opportunities God will bring along to
do His work in the outlying villages.
What exactly this will look like is still an exciting mystery, but one I
look forward to unraveling. I’ll make
my best laid plans, but I’m eager to see how He exchanges them for His own.
